I want to preface this by saying that this change has lead me to believe I may not actually have 'crohns' but some kind of pancreatic deficiency brought on my gluten intolerance which caused crohns-like symptoms.
Condensed background:
So a lot of other stuff happens, doctor visits, dietary changes, trying supplements (tried just about every herbal / alt therapy out there, I have a thread on here detailing many of them) won't bore you with the details but I started connecting the dots.
Whenever I hit about 135+ I had problems. It seemed MAYBE related to eating a single type of food. So this brought me to one of two things:
I dabbled with enzymes in the past, but always from the angle of "Will these let me eat things I can't" instead of "Will these let me better digest things I already can."
It was also around the same time I started looking harder at IF and meat-based dieting. Meat has always been more core safe food (and sugar.)
So I decided to focus on lipase and protease heavy enzymes, meat intake and supplementing micronutrients and some carbs.
There was noticeable improvement at first, but if I pushed too hard on fat intake I paid for it. I started off having to take several enzyme pills to digest a fatty meal. I also realized I needed a separate lactase pill if I wanted any dairy, so any time I had dairy I would take one generalized enzyme pill and one lactase.
The longer I stayed on the diet, the more fat I could tolerate and the less pills I needed.
I was using ovaltine to fill out my macros and calorie intake. At first it caused PAINFUL constipation, but I think a lot of the pain was the stress on my already inflamed and irritated gut. This has resolved itself. Still getting constipated which is from the dairy. Please don't try to tell me fiber cures constipation as this is both anecdotally (in my experience) and empirically (in studies) false. Fiber makes me gassy on top of constipated. I drink about a gallon of water a day, it's not water intake either.
I've been going steady for about 3 months now and gained about 12 lb.s
For those concerned or curious about meat based dieting I recommend these podcasts, it covers all the FAQs including "What about cholesterol?" "What about vitamin c?"
Condensed background:
- Dx at 14, 2004ish, malnutrition, throwing up green bile, stomach discomfort, chronic acid reflux. Recovered with remicade + protonix. Weight bottomed out at 99 lb.s, (height 5'11")
- Remicade stopped working around 08, switch to humira. Humira did nothing, condition worsened, Hidradenitis shows up, multiple food intolerances develop, more throwing up, this time with chronic diarrhea, acid reflux,
- Switch diet to gluten-free, eliminated some other foods, see improvements ~2013ish return to 'normal' life with work.
- Hit about 150 lbs. plateaued. Developed massive pus-filled lesions in arm pits. Resistant to antibiotics. Went on sugar/dairy free diet and high dose vitamin C, they resolved in a month, I credit cutting sugar more than the vitamin C. I was consuming obscene amounts of sugar to bulk.
- Food intolerance became degenerative and cyclical. Get sick > elimination diet > target cause > reduce food intake > recovery > increase food intake but more limited foods > repeat. \
- Saw nutritionist, tried low FODMAP strictly under their supervision, got SIBO test, nothing worked.
- Tried CBD / cannabis
So a lot of other stuff happens, doctor visits, dietary changes, trying supplements (tried just about every herbal / alt therapy out there, I have a thread on here detailing many of them) won't bore you with the details but I started connecting the dots.
Whenever I hit about 135+ I had problems. It seemed MAYBE related to eating a single type of food. So this brought me to one of two things:
- Bacterial overload from eating a single food type
- Rate-limited digestion in the body.
I dabbled with enzymes in the past, but always from the angle of "Will these let me eat things I can't" instead of "Will these let me better digest things I already can."
It was also around the same time I started looking harder at IF and meat-based dieting. Meat has always been more core safe food (and sugar.)
So I decided to focus on lipase and protease heavy enzymes, meat intake and supplementing micronutrients and some carbs.
There was noticeable improvement at first, but if I pushed too hard on fat intake I paid for it. I started off having to take several enzyme pills to digest a fatty meal. I also realized I needed a separate lactase pill if I wanted any dairy, so any time I had dairy I would take one generalized enzyme pill and one lactase.
The longer I stayed on the diet, the more fat I could tolerate and the less pills I needed.
I was using ovaltine to fill out my macros and calorie intake. At first it caused PAINFUL constipation, but I think a lot of the pain was the stress on my already inflamed and irritated gut. This has resolved itself. Still getting constipated which is from the dairy. Please don't try to tell me fiber cures constipation as this is both anecdotally (in my experience) and empirically (in studies) false. Fiber makes me gassy on top of constipated. I drink about a gallon of water a day, it's not water intake either.
I've been going steady for about 3 months now and gained about 12 lb.s
For those concerned or curious about meat based dieting I recommend these podcasts, it covers all the FAQs including "What about cholesterol?" "What about vitamin c?"